The Czech government said Monday it had reached a deal with ride-hailing service Uber that will see its drivers licensed like taxi drivers and data provided for tax purposes.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said that the San-Francisco based company had agreed to “share its data with the finance ministry” to improve tax collection. “Uber has been in the Czech Republic since 2014 and its operations have essentially been illegal up to now,” Babiš added.

Czech taxi drivers have organized a string of protests over the last few months against what they argue is unfair competition from unlicensed Uber drivers.

According to Uber, it works with some 2,000 Czech drivers and around 400,000 passengers have downloaded its app in the Czech Republic, an EU country of 10.5 million people.

As Uber doesn’t directly employ drivers, who are considered independent contractors, they pay less in taxes.

Author: red